Saw a gun blow up this weekend!!!!

BlueTic

I haven't been on-line for a while (hard drive went out on old computer)but we are on a loaner computer from our repair guy - God bless him.....
Anyway - went out to the range siting in my .280 with a 12x scope, and 2 guys are set up next to me just taking a shot every now and then, and checking their targets. They are taking their time and have a very nice benchrest setup. Both guys are shooting Browning A-Bolts Stainless/Synthetic (see where this is going). I'm setting up my meager supplies and am moving slowly - didn't want to distract them. I see one guy start putting away his equipment and he grabs one of the rifles and starts putting it away. The other guy is set up to take a few more shots.
I was waiting for the guy to shoot before walking back towards my truck and he takes the shot. His head jerks back and the rifle kinda jumps - the whole left side is blown out where the Mag came flying through. The guy is peppered all across the left side of his face, from the forehead down to his lip with schrapnell (sp.). He got stung pretty good and we helped him for a while to make sure he had no major cuts. I looked at the rifle and asked what kinda 7mm rounds he used - "He just looks at me and says "7mm?".
The other guys rifle was the 7mm and his is a .270. The other guy grabbed the .270 by mistake and was putting it away - so this guy grabbed the 7mm and put a .270 round in the chamber. Very impressive results. The guy is very lucky he had his glasses on.
What I couldn't figure is - Both rifles were similer, except the 7mm had the boss muzzel brake, and the .270 had a 5 round cartridge keeper strechy thing on the butt stock. Both had scopes, and I think they were both Leupolds. I can't actually say I would not make the same mistake - But it sure would take alot of distractions for me not to recognize my own rifle's configurations.
When I watched this happen I was waiting to go to my truck for my shooting glasses, and had just debated with myself as to their merits -v- being in the way with the spoting scope. I guess that settled the debate..

IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY RIGHTS - GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY (this includes politicians)

BoltactionMan

Saxon,

I think maybe the .270 would chamber up in a 7 Mag. It would be loose and you might get lucky and have a firing pin strike not set it off. I believe that I heard of this kind of "accident" before, the chamber wall don't support the case and it blows out. Sounds kinda suspiciouse the whole side of the gun blowing out though.

KC

redcedars

Actually this sounds like the case ruptured and gas escaped before the bullet could clear the end of the barrel; it could have even wedged in the throat. Gas escaped into the mag well which obviously is not designed to handle any pressure.

redcedars

Iconoclast

Super good example of why one should only have one weapon and one caliber on a bench at a time . . . Safety 101.3 or so. He's so incredibly fortunate it wasn't a 7mm cartridge of some sort touched off in a .270! Thanks for sharing this episode, BT . . . it is the sort of anecdote made for illustrations of what not to do (and to do - like wear glasses!).

ysacres

Blue Tic
what's sup ?
I flinch every time I squeze the trigger after hearing stores like that.

Gun up

JustC

actually, If you look at a 270, 30-06. 7mm mag etc, they are the same length. Headspace would be fine to chamber either in the other chamber. Now, I can see a 7mm mag being chambered in a 270 if the chamber was off in it's dia. dimensions, but I couldn't see why a 270 would blow up a 7mm mag. Sounds to me like his chamber allowed the 7mm mag to be chambered and when the bullet released from the case, it only movd enough to contact the rifling fully but not enough to allow gasses to escape quickly enough, which then reulted in major case failure, and subsequent failure of an injection molded stock. The guy is lucky.

A great rifle with a junk scope,....is junk.

j2k22

have seen the same thing happen with a fellow placing 2 full-size S&W stainless autos on his bench, loading a bunch of mags for each, and then losing track of which mag was for which pistol. The 10mm mags will accept 9mm rounds, which will chamber in the 10, held loosely by the extractor. Makes a funny sound when the case attempts and fails to expand enough to seal the chamber. No harm done, but it could turn out differently if the 9mm round got into the barrel and then was detonated by the next shot. I saw that happen in a 1911, 40 cal round fits in a 45 mag, feeds into the bbl, next .45 lights off the 40 and bulges the bbl so the bushing sticks tight over the bulge in recoil.
I use the bulged bbl and overexpanded cases in basic pistol classes as examples of what can occur when you get too many things happening on your bench at one time.

Wild Turkey

Sounds like part of the neck separated, wedging the bullet and neck in throat, leaving gas no where to go.

glad your or I weren't on the wrong side of that!

Wild Turkey"if your only tool is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail"

BlueTic

Yeah - sounds like multiple factors along with the wrong bullet, but the left side was blown out - thin walls around those mag wells. They did not stick around as they wanted to make sure there was no major damage to his face(or saving face with a quik exit). Hey - at least I offered to buy the rifle........

IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY RIGHTS - GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY (this includes politicians)

JustC

After a re-read, looks as though I had it backwards Could the bullet have been misaligned and caused the overpressurization?

A great rifle with a junk scope,....is junk.

redcedars

I think the 7mm Rem chamber is too big to support the .270 case, so that case failure resulting in the escape of high-pressure gas did not require an overpressurization to occur, that is, the case did not fail due to over pressure but rather due to lack of support. It could have been aggravated by the bullet wedging, even momentarily, which could cause a pressure spike on top of the case failure (.277 bullet in a 7mm-.284 bore). Once the case fails, you can only hope the safety vents can bleed enough pressure to prevent disaster until the bullet leaves the barrel and pressure is relieved. In this situation gas apparently escaped around the bottom of the bolt face and into the magazine well before sufficient pressure could be relieved.

For those who followed the .308 Win/7.62 NATO threads, this type of failure is one of my concerns about shooting hot .308 Win in an old bolt rechambered to 7.62 NATO. Take a minimum length .308 Win with its thinner case, stick it in a max size 7.62 NATO chamber, add a teeny bit too much headspace from bolt setback, and it sounds like a recipe for potential case failure to me, in a gun that doesn't have the best venting to boot.

The consequences of case failure can be very dangerous as BlueTic has described.

redcedars

SlappyDappy

I was once at the range and we were shooting skeet and some guy with a Ruger over-and-under fired and the top barrel blew in half. His face was all red and he wasnt wearing glasses but he wasnt hurt. He reloads his own ammo and he said a wad prolly got stuck in the barrel.

Also me and some friends were firing all of our assault rifles and I had an ak-47 and another guy an ar-15 and we had bags of each ammo. Someone had thrown some .223 in with the 7.62x39...

Well I fired the AK-47 and it made a wierd sound and smoke started coming out everywhere. The gun was also jammed. I took it inside and told them what happened, they took the gun and moments later the guy came back holding a split in half brass and told me that as the problem. The gun is still in perfect condition and works flalwessly. Maybe caues AK's are reliable? I dunno.

Can anyone diagnose exaclty what happened with the AK and why the .223 caused this? I realize its the wrong ammo and it wont happen again but I just wondering about the physics of it all.

Judge Dread

cal .30 RND fits in a .223 chamber and makes a biggg booom too.....

Many ARMY "revenges" were done putting one .30 in a .223 mag!!!

BOOMMMM!!!


JD

400 million cows can't be wrong ( EAT GRASS !!! )